Privacy Policy

Effective 10 November 2026

The short version

MailCave has no servers of its own. Your email travels directly between your email provider and your device, and is stored only on your device (and, if you choose, in your own private iCloud). The developer never receives, sees or stores your email, passwords or contacts. MailCave has no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and does not sell or share personal information.

MailCave is an email app for iPhone and iPad, published by Lovemore Virinos, Harare, Zimbabwe (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what MailCave does with information on your device and which outside services it talks to on your behalf.

Your email

MailCave connects straight from your device to your email provider’s servers (for example Google, Apple iCloud or your company’s mail host) using the standard IMAP and SMTP protocols, over encrypted connections.
Email you download is stored on your device in an encrypted database so you can read it offline and search it. You choose how long it is kept in Settings.
Your passwords, app-specific passwords and sign-in tokens are stored in the iOS Keychain on your device.
Email you send goes from your device to your provider, which delivers it.

Google accounts

When you choose “Continue with Google”, Google’s own sign-in page opens and asks your permission. MailCave requests:

Full access to Gmail (https://mail.google.com/), so that MailCave can download, show, search, send, move, label and delete your email through Gmail’s IMAP and SMTP servers, as an email app needs to.
Your basic profile (name, email address and profile picture), to name the account in the app and, if you ask, to use your Google photo as your picture in MailCave.

Data received from Google goes only to your device. It is not sent to us or to anyone else, it is not used for advertising, it is not used to train artificial intelligence or machine-learning models, and no person reads it.

MailCave’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

You can remove MailCave’s access at any time in your Google Account under Security → Your connections to third-party apps & services, or by removing the account in MailCave.

iCloud backup (optional)

If iCloud is turned on for MailCave, your account list (with passwords in an encrypted field) and your settings, such as signatures, templates, rules and preferences, are saved in your own private iCloud database, so you can restore them on another iPhone, iPad or Mac. This data is held by Apple under Apple’s Privacy Policy and cannot be seen by us. Your email itself is not copied to iCloud by MailCave.

Setting up a work address

When you type an address on your own domain, MailCave looks up its mail settings automatically:

It asks Cloudflare’s secure DNS service (cloudflare-dns.com) which mail servers the domain uses. Only the domain name (the part after the @) is sent.
It checks Mozilla Thunderbird’s public list of mail settings (autoconfig.thunderbird.net). Only the domain name is sent.
It checks whether your own mail host publishes settings for the address. That request goes to your mail host and includes your email address, as the standard requires.

Your password is never sent to any of these services; it only goes to your own mail server when you sign in.

Permissions on your device

MailCave only asks for these when you use the feature, and the information stays on your device:

Contacts: to suggest people as you type an address, and to use your own Contacts card photo if you ask.
Photos and Camera: to attach photos, scan documents, and choose your picture.
Calendar and Reminders: to show your day next to meeting invites, add meetings you accept, and add follow-ups to Reminders.
Face ID: to lock MailCave if you turn this on. MailCave never receives your face data.
Notifications: to tell you about new mail, reminders and scheduled emails.

Smart features

Summaries, priority sorting and suggested replies on iPhone and iPad use Apple Intelligence on your device. Your email is not sent to us or to any AI service.

What we collect

Nothing. MailCave contains no analytics, advertising or tracking code and does not send usage data to us. If you email us for support, we receive what you choose to send, use it only to help you, and delete it when it is no longer needed.

If you share crash reports with developers through your iPhone’s settings, Apple may pass anonymous crash information to us through App Store Connect.

Removing your data

Removing an account in MailCave’s Settings deletes its email and saved password from the device.
Deleting the app deletes everything MailCave stored on the device.
To delete the optional iCloud copy, open the Settings app → your name → iCloud → Manage Storage → MailCave.

Children

MailCave is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

Questions about privacy: admin@lotavir.co.zw · Lovemore Virinos, Harare, Zimbabwe.